


Under the Cover of the Night

by plumtrees



Series: MatsuHana Week 2015 [4]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, M/M, Magical Realism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-07
Updated: 2015-09-18
Packaged: 2018-04-13 10:03:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4517685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plumtrees/pseuds/plumtrees
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chapter 1 is Day 4 of MatsuHana Week: At Midnight<br/>Chapter 2 is Day 5 of KyouHaba Week: Crossover or AU</p><p>-</p><p>The dog spirit’s head whips up, then he snorts, an ugly little sound from his nostrils. “Talk to me about my ears when you’ve stopped growing flowers in your hair.”</p><p>Shigeru’s hand lifts to touch the white roses tucked above his ears, following the soft petals up to where they fused with his skin. “You have to be thankful for them, Kentarou. The only reason I can endure your company is because my roses have been masking your awful smell this whole time.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kodama Hanamaki and Onmyouji-in-Training Matsukawa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 4 of MatsuHana Week: At Midnight

The clock strikes twelve, the grand tolls welcoming the ghosts and spirits and specters alike that gather for the Hyakki Yagyō. Most of the living are asleep, and those who are awake know better than to go outside. For today, the supernatural rules the land.

But here, underneath a willow tree adorned with bulbous silver fruits that shine pearlescent in the moonlight, a living soul and a tree spirit stand apart from their own kinds.

He takes a moment to appreciate the shift in the atmosphere—revitalizing and pure like a sip of sweet water—and steps away from Issei. He feels Issei’s anxiety and sends him one last burst of reassuring energy as the magic in the air converges around him, accumulating enough to grant him a physical body for just this one day.

His disembodied form scrambles, an unfortunate side effect of the magic weaving itself into him, but soon he begins to take shape: light pink hair cropped short, the high slope of a forehead, deep-set eyes and the curve of cheeks ending at the sharp point of a chin. His first breath comes in a harsh gasp, like someone who had just emerged from deep waters.

A warm hand cups against his newly tangible cheek and he leans against the touch, sighing at the comforting pressure of skin against his.

“I can touch you.” Issei murmurs, still in awe and disbelief. He opens his eyes. He knows his heart isn’t there yet, but he feels it clench all the same at the sight of Issei’s tears.

“Idiot,” he quips, and his voice trembles slightly. “Why are you crying?”

“Same reason you are.” Issei teases lightly, brushing his thumb against something warm and wet on his cheek. He ducks his head, forehead bumping against Issei’s nose as he nuzzles his hair. 

Issei seems content to just stay in this companionable silence, patiently waiting for him to complete the transition from his own plane to this, but there is something he promised himself he would tell Issei, on this night.

“Hanamaki Takahiro.” 

Issei pulls back, confused.

“My human name.”

His old self would have been furious at what he’d just done. By giving Issei his real name, he is putting Issei in a position of power over him, to banish or summon as he wishes. Throughout the centuries he’d lived he had witnessed human treachery and greed, had scoffed and rolled his eyes at other yōkai who fall for creatures as fickle and untrustworthy as humans, but now that he is here, he thinks he understands why they were all willing to risk so much.

Issei blinks, eyes wide in shock, then a smile spreads across his face, giddy and excited. Takahiro thinks he feels the exact same way.

“Takahiro.” Issei enunciates carefully, the syllables leaving his lips with a reverence Takahiro knows he reserves only for the most solemn of prayers. Something in him flutters as Issei smiles down at him, soft and fond. 

“It’s perfect.” is all he says before he leans in and kisses him. 

It’s been so long since he’s had the kiss of a lover and his breath catches at the swipe of Issei’s tongue against his teeth, the roof of his mouth. The novelty of the act causes his jaw to fall slack and his face to go warm but slowly he understands what is expected of him. Takahiro tilts his head to better slide his tongue against Issei’s as he drags it in and out of his mouth, closes his lips around the flexible muscle and sucks softly, drawing moans from the human he’d so foolishly fallen in love with.

His hands still haven’t materialized, everything below his bust is still an amalgamation of his own spiritual energy and magic. He wants to reciprocate Issei’s touch, map out his physical body with his own hands, feel him against him while they have this day to be together in the same plane.

But Issei is kissing him sweet and slow, like they have all the time in the world, and for now, it is enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was debating on whether or not to post this here since Day 4 was just supposed to be an artwork with a small description of the context but it ran away from me and became a fic of its own, so I figured might as well. Plus, it kind of irrationally bothers me that if I don't post it the labeling will change. Also, a way to advertise the fact that I now have a tumblr! Blame [SheenaChan](http://sheenaxzelos.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Please see the main submission for Day 4 at [my tumblr](http://plumtreeforest.tumblr.com/post/126030382806/matsuhana-week-day-4-day-4-of-matsuhana-week-at)!


	2. Kodama Yahaba and Inugami Kyoutani

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 5 of KyouHaba Week: Crossover or AU

Shigeru opens eyes as silver as his hair, his ears just barely catching the last rungs of a fading bell toll. Midnight. He sits up quickly, the leaves of his tree parting to reveal the too-bright sky, nebulous shapes dancing across the constellations as spirits cross over to the living realm. A breathless laugh escapes him and he gently steps down to one of his tree’s lower branches, careful not to dislodge the clumps of dainty white flowers clinging like the fresh snowfall of winter.

To his surprise, someone is at the foot of his tree. The black, bushy tail wagging behind him and the pointy ears above a nest of yellow hair reveal the visitor’s identity, and Shigeru, unable to resist, calls out, “Still can’t dematerialize your ears and tail, mad dog?”

The dog spirit’s head whips up, then he snorts, an ugly little sound from his nostrils. “Talk to me about my ears when you’ve stopped growing flowers in your hair.”

His hand lifts to touch the white roses tucked above his ears, following the soft petals up to where they fused with his skin. “You have to be thankful for them, Kentarou. The only reason I can endure your company is because my roses have been masking your awful smell this whole time.”

Kentarou snarls up at him, canines bared as he paws at his tree trunk. Shigeru giggles and leans back against his tree, supporting his cheek on his palm as he watches Kentarou attempt to climb.

“So, is there a particular reason you’re here or are you just interested in stealing my nectar again?”

Kentarou, predictably, flushes at the mention of their first meeting. He abandons the trunk in favor of shaking an angry first at him, his tail wagging agitatedly. “I wasn’t _stealing_ it. I didn’t even know someone owned it the first time around.”

Shigeru laughs but the dog spirit’s expression darkens. He turns his head and jerks his chin over to the tree several yards away, like a hunting dog pointing at the direction of a kill.

Shigeru looks up at Takahiro’s tree, at the trunk hunched over, like the weight of its own gifts were too much for it to bear, at the luminescent fruits, shining like tiny little lanterns, beacons for the lost spirits of the other side, at Takahiro himself, fully human and modestly covering himself up with the outer robe his onmyōji had shed. He cannot see the human from this angle, but he can see how Takahiro smiles up at him gratefully, how he lets the human slide the sacred garment over him, hands lingering far too long, far too intimately.

Something heavy wells up within Shigeru a the sight.

“They look happy.”

Shigeru looks down to his companion, golden eyes also staring out at the tree. He sighs through his nose. The roses in his hair rustle. “For how long?”

Kentarou doesn’t answer and Shigeru glides down to join him. His eyes are half-mast, tail limp. Shigeru knows what he wants, and he also knows why he can’t give it to him.

“The happier you let yourself become, the more painful it is when it’s finally taken away.” He says, in lieu of words he has no courage to say.

Kentarou does not look at him. “Is that better than not feeling happiness at all?”

Shigeru’s flowers shrink back, petals wilting slightly. He turns to watch Takahiro and his human, just so he doesn’t have to look at Kentarou. “You’re asking that to a spirit who knows no better than a life of solitude.”

Kentarou eyes flit toward him briefly, a flash of gold in the edge of Shigeru’s vision. He is hurt, Shigeru knows, and that _should_ be a good thing, because he can no longer enable a spirit who clearly wants more than he’s willing to give. Kentarou is young. He will learn, but Shigeru would rather not be the one to teach him that lesson. Regardless of his reasons, his flowers wilt further at the sight of Kyoutani’s limp tail, the steep slope of his shoulders.

They watch the couple as they continue to indulge in their newfound proximity, the human exploring Takahiro’s body in a way that he could never before, when Takahiro was a spirit. The curtain of leaves of Takahiro’s tree seem to shift, thickening and converging until Shigeru can just barely see their silhouette.

He diverts his gaze to the ground, defers to their need for privacy, then he sees it: a small bud, sprouting from a jagged window in the suffocating concrete. He glides over the wooden fence that surrounds his tree, bends down to kiss it and the delicate little plant stirs, the crack from which it emerged expanding into little hairline fissures into the gray stone. Kentarou’s tail perks as he too looks down, watching with barely-concealed interest as more buds join them, sprouting and curling, taking their first taste of life.

At their feet, the concrete comes alive with the bloom of a thousand hydrangeas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soo...more from this universe! I'm really in love with it and I'm trying to get it all to gel together in my head right now and since I have a chronic fear of posting stories before they're actually completed it might take a while before it actually gets published. For now, have snippets of subplots.


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